Liege Waffle Recipe / Gaufre de Liège Recette

It’s also part of my new all-metric waffle blog. Though I know few people will want to take on the recipes, they may be some of the finest waffles you’ll ever taste. Enjoy the new recipe and the new site.

The recipe I posted yesterday – Revisiting the 1840s – is definitely the one I’d have anyone else make, but below is a new blend I mixed this morning. It’s just my shorthand version, without directions.

It creates a lower yield of dough … enough for five 100g waffles (to which 27g of pearl sugar is added, per waffle). It also trims back the water, yet ups the egg, butter, muscovado, and vanilla. I’m particularly psyched about the amount of vanilla in this round. It works out to one whole Mexican bean in each waffle. No sense skimping, if more of anything is what’s needed.

The texture should turn out slightly lighter and softer than the last version, and the color will be an even deeper cream. I just keep tinkering, hoping I can go from something great to something transcendent. I’ll have a better idea once I bake one up in the morning.

I’m still refining the recipe for the hardcore, old-school Liège waffle, but below is the version I have for now. It’s excellent and totally worth making. I’ll continue posting other updates, as I tweak the measures of the ingredients. If you make the recipe below, let me know how it turns out ;)

1840s Liège Waffle Recipe

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80g all-purpose flour

2.6g T-58 yeast

50g egg (warm)

63.7g mineral water @ ~110°F

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61.6g all-purpose flour

75.2g whole wheat pastry flour

4.4g dark rye flour

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15g orange blossom honey

44.1g egg (warm)

23.4g dark muscovado

4.18g Île de Ré salt

3 Mexican vanilla pods

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141.1g beurre d’Isigny @ ~60°F

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1. In the bowl of a stand mixer, stir together the 80g of flour with the 2.6g T-58 yeast. Add the 50g of egg and 63.7g water, and mix to blend. Cover with the remaining mix of AP, WW, and rye flours, but do not stir. Cover the bowl in plastic wrap and let stand for 90 minutes at a temperature of ~72°F.

2. Add the 15g honey, additional 44.1g egg, 23.4g muscovado, 4.18g sea salt, and the scraped seed paste from 3 Mexican vanilla pods (the seed paste will weigh around 2g, depending on the size and freshness of the beans). Mix on speed #2, scraping every few minutes, until the dough forms a ball on the paddle. This should take 9-11 minutes.

3. Begin adding the butter, 15-20g at a time, over the next 5-7 minutes or so, scraping the bowl every few minutes. Once all the butter is added, continue mixing, scraping occasionally, until the dough again balls on the paddle. From beginning the butter addition, to the dough balling, this mix will also take 9-11 minutes.

4. Scrape the dough into a large buttered bowl, sprinkle lightly with flour (to keep a crust from forming), cover with plastic wrap and let rise at ~72°F for 4 hours.

5. REFRIGERATE FOR 60 MINUTES BEFORE PROCEEDING TO STEP #6. This is essential. The yeast respiration must be slowed before continuing.

6. Stir the dough down, and scrape it onto a lightly floured surface. Press it into a long rectangle, then fold it over in thirds, like a letter, before wrapping it tightly in plastic wrap. Place it in the lowest section of the refrigerator overnight.

7. The next day, take 110g of dough and mix it with 30g of pearl sugar (there is enough dough to make exactly 5 waffles). Shape it into an oval ball (like a football without the pointy ends) and let it rise (covered loosely in plastic wrap) for exactly 90 minutes.

8. Cook each waffle at exactly 365°F for 2 minutes. Once off the iron, allow the waffle to cool for several minutes, and then enjoy its tasty magic.

It’s so weird to think these aren’t made anywhere anymore. Sure, there are hundreds of waffle stands across Belgium and beyond, but they all do the modernized version of the waffle, robbing it of its history and magic. In most cases, absolutely none of the ingredients being used are period-correct; the product is bland and lifeless. It’s a culinary tragedy.

I want the world to taste the little guy above. A luscious blend of Mexican vanilla, orange blossom honey, muscovado, and the finest butter of Normandy. Nothing less should be tolerated ;)

Not only is it nice to nail the caramelization effect, but seeing flecks of vanilla in there with it is just awesome. The flavor of the two together is dreamy.

Results of the most recent recipe variation are pretty nice. The texture is a little lighter, while still appropriately chewy. The butteriness, too, is up now that the dough is almost 64% butter-to-flour vs. 55% in the last version.

Since this light dough is cooking up with more volume, I’m going to trim back the amount I flop on the iron. We’ll see how 100g dough with 27g of pearl sugar goes. Not sure if I have any immediate thoughts on further tweaking the recipe; I might nudge up the butter, muscovado and vanilla slightly. We shall see.

This morning, I cooked up the little guy above. The caramelization was fantastic, but I’m thinking of doing some substantial tinkering with the texture.

Having cooked up my regular 18th century brioche in the iron, and seeing how tender it comes out, I think a hybrid of it with the current waffle recipe would produce something pretty interesting. So below is the shorthand version of the recipe I have for myself as Experiment #3:

I mixed up some new dough this morning (photo below). Taking the recipe I put up yesterday, I removed 5g of water, then added 5g muscovado, 12g butter, and two more vanilla pods. I think that should help the waffle cook-up a little softer and slightly less-hyrdrated, while also having the “crumb” be a little more delicate on the tongue. The extra vanilla, too, should prove to be a flavorful addition that I hope will be just the right amount … decidedly present, while not overpowering at all.